Today @ Colorado State has been replaced by SOURCE. This site exists as an archive of Today @ Colorado State stories between January 1, 2009 and September 8, 2014.

Events

Sociologist to discuss climate change denial

April 6, 2012

Renowned sociologist Riley E. Dunlap will be the featured speaker at "Organized Climate Change Denial: The Role of the Conservative Movement."

The presentation will be from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday in Room A-103 in the Clark Building on the CSU campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Dunlap, a Regents Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University, has done extensive research on Americans’ ever-evolving attitudes about environmental issues. He has particular interest in climate change and how it is viewed politically.

Questions answered

His presentation will provide a brief history of the climate change denial movement, explain its focus and examine its multi-faceted role in promoting the denial of human-caused climate change. His 45-minute presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

World-renowned speaker

Lori Peek, associate professor of sociology and co-director of CSU’s Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis, said Dunlap is one of the world’s best-known environmental sociologists. She said Dunlap’s talk will include bits of humor but added that “his research is very rigorous.”

“Dr. Dunlap is really willing to engage questions and differing opinions,” Peek said. “He’s really good about looking at all views on climate change, so it should be a really positive forum.”

The event is sponsored by CSU’s Department of Sociology; the School of Global Environmental Sustainability; the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis; the Environmental Governance Working Group; the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes; and Changing Climates at CSU.